Moving Forward!

Eleven days later, I've finally emerged from the perfect storm of Christmas, just in time to (hopefully) reinitiate good work-habits. Today I went out at ten this morning and wrote for three solid hours, managing to finish Chapter Four of Experimental Film. This puts me at roughly 20,000 words/20% done already, regarding the impending slog towards Draft Zero. So if I can keep it up, I might actually mange to get it in before deadline, though I'm not holding my breath. (Spent some time since then outlining the next chapter, too, so that's good.)

Otherwise: most of today was spent buying incredibly boring domestic things like bath-mats, a new shower curtain, underwear, socks and a replacement wallet, because mine literally burst its seams; got to buy all four of Rober Aickman's re-released collections, though, so that's good. I also managed to watch my copy of Elysium, finally--Neill Blomkamp's second film--and catch a screening of The Hobbit: Battle of Five Armies, bringing my love affair with the Brooding Dickhead Under The Mountain to its foregone tragic conclusion. The next week, meanwhile, will be all about trying to keep Cal occupied and my Mom satisfied, but he's back to school next Monday, thank God. Fingers crossed that I can continue to demand time with my laptop, here and there.

All right, back to it.

New Year's Round-Up: 2014

I started out 2014 determined to crack Experimental Film, but that didn't happen. Why is debatable, but given I've now got an actual deadline for Draft Zero, I'm choosing not to see it as a defeat, just a deferral. I've got at least 60,000 words' worth of notes and previously-written cack to cannibalize, and if I can just keep pushing myself, I'll get it done, because I have to. May have to default on a couple of anthology fills in the meantime, but I guess we'll see.;)

In terms of short fiction, meanwhile, 2014 was definitely a cornucopia; I wrote a crazy amount of it, saw a crazy amount of it get published or republished, received some very nice feedback indeed. My new collection/story cycle, We Will All Go Down Together, though delayed in the editing process, was released to surprising acclaim, most notably when I was both mentioned on Entertainment Weekly's website and reviewed on npr.org, by the same wonderful person (Jason Heller), so that's great—the culmination of a fifteen-year journey. People I respect continue to reveal that they know my name and take note of my opinions, and it continues to stun me. So while I've been up and down emotionally and physically throughout, this is a very good place I'm in overall, career-wise. I'm blessed, and I'm grateful.

Fiction:

“That Place” c. 2014 (Letters to Lovecraft, Jesse Bullington ed.)
“Gaze” c. 2014 (The Doll Project, Edllen Datlow ed.)
“Guising” c. 2014 (October Dreams 2, Robert Morrish ed.)
“The Harrow” c. 2014 (Children of Old Leech, Ross E. Lockhart ed.)
“This Is Not For You” c. 2014 (Nightmare Magazine's “Women Destroy Horror” issue, Ellen Datlow ed.)
“Night-Bird” c. 2014 (Aghast Magazine, George Cotronis ed.)
“The Red Girl of Chatouye” c. 2014 (for Blog-Sothoth)
“Twilight State” c. 2014 (Genius Loci, Jaym Gates ed.)
“In Hell, An Eye” c. 2014 (Eulogies III, Christopher Jones ed.)
“Ghost Pressure,” c. 2014 (WHAT the #@&% is THAT?, John Joseph Adams ed.)
“Hairwork,” c. 2014 (submission for She Walks In Darkness, Silvia Moreno-Garcia ed.)
Tally = roughly 54,500 words

Poetry:
“Ruach Elohim”
“The Song of the Unformed”
Tally = roughly 400 words

Fanfiction:

Death Is A Friend (Of Ours) series (The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes/The Governor):
“This Old Death”
“Death To Everyone”
“What's The Matter With Your Next-Door Neighbour?/An Act Of God, A Freak Of Nature”
Tally = roughly 108,254 words
(Always easier to pay with somebody else's toys, so thanks, Robert Kirkman et al. And thanks to David Morrissey, for being a long, tall piece of awesome who's also really, really nice in person.;))

Other Stuff:
Taught my first Litreactor course
Outlined two novel pitches
Did at least 20,000 words' worth of Experimental Film
Sang in two Echo Women's Choir concerts
Continued with core training all year

So there you have it. My resolutions for 2015 are pretty simple: finish the book, see it published, keep singing, keep training, be reasonably pain-free and happy, see Cal continue to develop and flourish. I think they're all doable.

Again, back to it...